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Notes -
Not me.
A guy who became an Akido master and taught akido professionally ultimately shut down his Dojo when he realized that the actual techniques he was teaching would not be effective for his students if they ever had to use it against an aggressive opponent and that the philosophical elements of it were mostly used to distract from this problem.
This was a big deal in that he was a well-known personality in the Akido scene at the time, and he (intentionally) got his ass kicked by an MMA fighter to test his over a decade of experience in Akido. Learns quickly that going for wrist control against a striking opponent doesn't work well, most throws won't work if the opponent resists, and his defense is thwarted easily.
He's gone on to makes a TON of videos where he examines different styles and really tries to test them for their efficacy and see if he can make them work under stress, and honestly assess whether there's any useful knowledge there. Akido really does not measure up, in his estimation.
My general opinion is that Akido is pretty much ballroom dancing with malicious intent. Beautiful to watch, but depends on a willing, coordinated partner to perform as intended.
The lack of strikes, lack of ground game, and general lack of any techniques that damage an opponent suggest, to me, that nobody should use this as their preferred self-defense method.
Although I could be convinced otherwise.
*Aikido
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